Octavia SE 1.4 TSI

[ionian]

20170321-P3210001-Edit-Edit.jpg by Simon Grimes, on Flickr

 

I bought a 65 plate manual SE 1.4 TSI from one of the car supermarkets in January. What a great buy that was! 12.5k on the clock, stock SE except for a full size spare wheel and metallic paint, £11k. 

 

I came from a small family hatchback and I wanted something with a bit more size and a lot more comfort inside. Having test driven at the main dealership, I took a punt on one of the car supermarkets and saved about a grand and a half on the approved used sticker. I'm not sure if this was a risk or not - the car was ex-rental so may have been flogged I guess, but it was clean as a whistle and low mileage. 

 

I love the drive - having played around with the various modes, I just leave it in sport for the throttle response. 2nd is a bit revvy and I find myself block changing a lot, but it's just getting used to how the car likes to pull. It's very refined when keeping the revs down, and has plenty of grunt (not instant, but not far off it as long as you are above around 1800 rpm). I'm getting around 47mpg on a mixture of town, country and motorway. My only real complaint is that the dipped headlights aren't bright enough. I live in the middle of nowhere, no street lamps, and could do with more vision. 

 

Two quick questions:

It's yet to have service, due at 18k or two years. Will I have an issue having not bought it from a main dealer if I get it serviced there?

Is smartlink worth getting? I have a £5 phone holder from Amazon which does the job, but would rather it was put away while still allowing use of google maps. Has anyone added this as an aftermarket add-on?

 

I've attached a couple of pics taken today after giving it awash. It does shine up nicely!

 

20170321-P3210004-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit.jpg by Simon Grimes, on Flickr

[glosrich]

No any Skoda dealer will happily take your money...Lol

It's on variable servicing if it's 18k miles.

You can ask for it to be set to annual 10k miles, better for the turbo to have clean oil every year IMO.

Smart link is around £150 coded by a dealer. But check they know how to do it, some don't have a clue.

[Gerrycan]

Nice car and you seem to have got it at a very good price so well done.

Others now worried by the diesel scaremongering and looking for similar used petrol options seem to be having more difficulty finding something suitable and reasonably priced.

 

I totally agree the modern small turbo engine (well the 1.4tsi anyway) is quite a performance and economy revelation.

Depends what you are coming from though.

 

I presume what you call "block changing" is what I call "short-shifting" and just not using the sequence and going from 2nd to 4th/5th/6th. I do that a fair bit especially when I'm at the front at traffic lights and want to get out of everyone's way.

 

The standard halogen headlights are marginal and quite a few complain, but there are some threads dealing with options in depth which are quite an interesting read.

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/328575-better-bulbs-for-mk3-headlights/

 

 

Edited 22 March, 2017 by Gerrycan

[SC03OTT]

Short shifting is completely different, no?  It's where you change up before it's actually needed?  That was my understating of short shifting anyway. 

[Gerrycan]

1 hour ago, SC03OTT said:

Short shifting is completely different, no?  It's where you change up before it's actually needed?  That was my understating of short shifting anyway. 

You're right! 

Dang more credibility down votes :(